Was grooming son as heir to jihadist empire

The 22-year-old would-be-jihadist wrote to his reclusive father to say he was itching to join the fight. Hamza trained with explosives and embraced the terror network that killed 3,000 Americans in the September 11, 2001 attacks.

But young Hamza was no run-of-the-mill jihadist recruit. He was the favorite son of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, who was grooming him to take over as al-Qaida’s leader, according to US intelligence officials.

More than 100 newly declassified documents were provided to AFP by the Central Intelligence Agency, including two letters to bin Laden from his son and one from Hamza’s mother imploring that he follow in his “father’s footsteps.”

They included al-Qaida correspondence noting the eagerness of Hamza, believed to have engaged in terror raids when he was a teen and propaganda videos at a younger age, to return to his father’s inner circle.

An Al-Qaeda document recovered by US Navy Seals from the Abbottabad hideout of Osama bin Laden describes the 2008 Mumbai terror attack by Pakistan-based LeT terrorists as a “heroic Fidai” operation and the one at German Bakery in Pune as a “beautiful huge” bombing.
The 15-page document “Terror Franchise: The Unstoppable Assassin: Techs Vital role for its success”, originally in English, lists the Mumbai attack as one of the “blessed” operations.
The document directs al-Qaeda and its affiliates to kill and target Americans and its allies, including those in Britain, Germany and India with their terror attacks.
“The mission of the Global Mujahideen is to destroy the American economy by targeting American economic targets globally,” it said.
“Following the London bombing and before it, there were several blessed operation against American and European targets in Indonesia, Pakistan, Egypt, India and elsewhere, such as the brave bombing of a bus carrying French nationals, the Marriott hotel massive bombing, the bombing of the Denmark embassy in Islamabad, the massive Bali bombings, and lately the heroic Fidai (martyrdom) operations in Bombay – India’s economical capital – in which several western targets were struck in which many Americans and other westerners were killed,” the document reads.
US intelligence officials have described these documents as a treasure trove of information